A decent oatmeal cookie recipe is a great thing to have in your back pocket because you can make them fairly easily with the things you might already have in your kitchen. Any variation of oatmeal should work—and flavored oatmeal is great because it gives the same recipe a new taste. And when you’re toting baked goods around as I often am, cookies tend to travel better than pies, cakes, and other sweets. Oatmeal cookies are great in particular because they are a little more solid than others (such as chocolate chip) and are therefore less likely to melt in this Texas heat. My favorite part about most cookie recipes and this one in particular is that you don’t have to make the whole batch at once, but you can save the batter to finish later if need be. 

Directions:

1 C butter, softened

1 C white sugar

1 C packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 C flour

1 tsp salt

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

3 C oats

In a medium bowl, mix butter, sugars (white and brown) until creamy (you may want to use a mixer if you have one, or sucker a strapping young gentleman who wants to prove himself into doing this for you). Beat in eggs. Then stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or whatever you actually have time for—lets face it, you didn’t plan ahead and neither did I). 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Toll the dough into Ping-Pong sized balls,* and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a fork coated in sugar. To do this, dip fork in water first and then in sugar. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack—you can just use your countertop—to cool completely. 

All that being said, I hate oatmeal cookies. They’re the worst. Dry, crumbly, and chocolate is not a likely ingredient. However, most normal people like them, and they’re cheaper than a lot of other cookies out there. 

*My original recipe says to roll them into walnut-sized balls, but I figured this would be a more identifiable metaphor.